Katy Morrison
"Team Player."
It's a common denominator in her co-workers' description of Katy Morrison, Rehabilitation Assistant in the Conway Field Office. Says District Manager Carl Daughtery, "Katy is a wonderful team player… and has always maintained prominent professionalism; working with Katy the past three years has revealed something I have to admit as a Manager: I couldn't do a great job without her! Katy, in one word… is 'exceptional'."
And one of the Counselors who also rely on Morrison's skills seconds the thought, saying "Katy is a dedicated worker… she works with the clients well, always keeps her work done on time, and is a very pleasant fellow employee to work with. She works hard to serve the clients and get the casework done; she is also a great team worker, working well with all the office staff."
A native of Marshall, Arkansas, Morrison attended a business college in Springfield, Missouri following high school graduation, worked for a time, then married and raised her family in Pulaski County. Besides employing very special skills as a stay-at-home Mom for 20 years, she also contributed her business know-how for nine years while employed by an insurance company and to Waterworks in Little Rock for a year. Before being introduced to the agency as a client, Morrison had never heard of the ARS. Her counselor, now-retired Zack Binns, recommended her as a secretary in RIDAC, where she began working in November 1997 (having been out of the workforce for so long, she tells us, she had to update her skills by taking computer classes for this job), and then at the Little Rock Field Office for a short time. The Conway Field Office opened in 1998 and she's been there ever since.
Morrison reports that she truly enjoys working where she is now as a Rehabilitation Assistant and Office Support Person, saying, "Our District Manager, Carl Daughtery, is one of the greatest supervisors we've had to work for. He's truly a caring person," and adds that she's glad people with disabilities have such an Agency to assist them to find suitable employment.
Her dedication to the mission of ARS, Daughtery asserts, is remarkable. "Katy has worked with three different new counselors in the last two years… and Katy has made sure that the cases are up to date. Normally, when I lose a counselor, it is my goal to work the caseload until another counselor is hired; Katy Morrison made this process seem magical… each day, when I came into the office, my appointments and case files were on my desk with narrative updating me concerning the case. Katy knew what status each case was in and alerted me when it was time to move to a different status."
"Katy Morrison," Daugherty concludes, "is very special to the Conway Office and I'm privileged to have an individual like her to be a part of District V-N. Katy – thank you for your sincere dedication and commitment…providing services to people with disabilities."
Away from the office, Morrison delights in her family -- she has a son and daughter-in-law in Kentucky with four teenage daughters and one son; her daughter and son-in-law live in Bryant and have two boys and one girl. The Bryant grandchildren fill up a lot of her spare time…the youngest is two years old and hard to keep up with! Besides seeing the grandchildren, she enjoys attending church, watching HGTV, classic movies, reading and visiting her brother and sister at Marshall. Although she has lived most of her life in the city she prefers the countryside.
Morrison is honored to be selected Statewide Employee of the Month, saying that she would like to be remembered for trying to do a good job and getting along well with her co-workers. She's looking forward to retirement, maybe working part-time, or staying busy with the grandchildren.
